You are the Warlock, Artificer, Archivist, or Wizard. This makes you the party crafter. You want to make some weapons and armor, some wondrous items and some grafts - maybe more. We'll show you how to get the best bang for your buck.

Furthermore, please note that as cost is a real world value, cost reductions are not added together but multiplied by the total, one after another so that two 25 percent reductions lead to a total reduction of 43.75 percent. PHB 304 is where that rule comes from.

Item is restricted to being used by those of a specific class or alignment. (DMG)

70%

Apprentice (Craftsman) feat (DMG II 177)

90%

Extraordinary Artisan feat (ECS53)

75%

Binding a Colossal Elemental (Preferably a whale with the Elemental Creature template) to it. (ECS+MoE+MotP191+srd)

80%

Magical Artisan applied to an item creation feat, Bind Elemental or the Eberron cost reduction feats are best (PGF141)*

75%

The discount Kaorti get (Adds 13% of the gp value to xp cost, so this should be applied last) (FF 108 + web)

35%

Membership in one of several guilds (see below)

90%

Favored in Guild in an arcane guild (DMG II pg 227-8)

95%

*As long as they are applied to various item creation feats that can work together (such as the Eberron cost reducers and Bind Elemental), the effects of multiple takings of this feat can stack. This can happen as a result of the stacking rules not applying to feats.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specific Cost in Gold Pieces

Reducer (Source)

Category

Reduced to

Landlord (SBG)

Stronghold

50% above set sum

Making stronghold yourself (SBG)

Stronghold

70%

Stronghold is mobile + Nearby feature that makes attacking easier + Site under legal dispute/lawless area + 7-48 miles from a small city (SBG)

Stronghold

(100-5-2-10-2)%

Unbound Scroll, prc (Dra) + Legacy Champion afterwards (WoL)

Scrolls

100% minus 5% per level

Gold Dwarf Dweomersmith feat (RoF)

Weapons*

95%

Shield Dwarf Warder feat (RoF)

Shields and Armor*

95%

Hammer of the Magesmith (A&EG 109)

Weapons*

95%

Blood Artisan (Dr 318)

Creates rolled, Cursed Items

75%

Fey Cherry wood (Drag357 pg56)

Items made w/ wood

90%

Salamander Orchids (Drag357)

Flaming/Flame Burst properties

-500gp

Weapon/Armor templates (DMGII)

Specific Weapon/Armor properties

90%

Portal Master (PGtF)

Portals

50% (can't stack w/ Magical Artisan)

Scribing onto a Caster's Shield(Core)

Scrolls of 3rd lvl spells or under

~50% (with qualifiers, see item)

Having Divine Rank of 1+ and actually having the feats to make the items

Items related to their portfolio

50%

*These categories are broader than they first appear. Some items technically count as weapons even though you might not first think of them as such, for example any shield that can bash counts as a weapon. Also, depending on the leniency of the DM, anything that is built into a weapon, armor, or shield should also get the same discount (though it also counts for the maximum price of an item).--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Miscellaneous Cost Reducers

Non-Continuous Cost Reducers

Reducer (Source)

Category

Times Usable

Reduced to

Artificer's Dump magical location (Dr350)

General

1/Month

90%

Mundane Item Cost Reducers

Reducer (Source)

Reduced to

Exploits

Blazing Forge planar touchstone(PlH 161)

50%

"your cost for creating masterwork items is halved."

Crafting it yourself instead of buying it. (DMG)

33.33...%

Apprentice (Craftsman) feat (DMG II)

90%

Affiliations Cost ReducersYou can only benefit from one affiliation at a time.

Note if you use the Kaorti discount you need to add 13% of the gp value when it was applied to the xp needed to craft and that xp can not be reduced in anyway without reducing the amount of gp you are saving.

Reducer

Reduced to

Crafting it yourself compared to market price. (DMG)

4%

Favored in Guild + several Wizard's Circles in Sharn (CoT)

90%

Legendary Artisan (ECS)

75%

Magical Artisan (PGF)

75%

Item is restricted to being used by those of a specific skill. (DMG)

90%

Item is restricted to being used by those of a specific class or alignment. (DMG)

There are a variety of ways to reduce xp but there is a non-super cheesy way to get a continuously regenerating xp supply. Ambrosia is a substance that can be used to replace 2 xp for crafting purposes per dose. Distilled Joy is the spell that creates Ambrosia by using a person in continuous pleasure. The major downside to Distilled Joy is it has a casting time of 24 hours. The way to get around that is by using a Spell Clock that casts it once every 24 hours, a magic trap with the spell cast into it as a Spell Like Ability, such as by a Factotum, or using a Limited Wish. One way to keep the person in a state of continuous pleasure is by putting the nipple ring from BoVD that turns pain to pleasure on them then putting them near a symbol of pain. For maximum effect place the subject in overlapping Manifest Zones, one providing the timeless trait and the other providing the fastest flowing time trait you can find (in Eberron's case Dal Quor). These manifest zone are created through the psionic power Anchor Plane. To get a pool of people willing to act as xp batteries you simply need to use the feats Leadership, Extra Followers, and Assemble the Horde.

Step 1) Set up free hospitals.Step 2) Extract liquid pain from people suffering diseases (they're acceptable targets). Magic trap or spell turret or spell clock or something.Step 3) Use some sort of magic trap of cure disease or something.Step 4) Undercut all the good churches.Step 5) Drive all other medical services out of business. You are now necessary to society.

Another method that can be used is the Thought Bottle. It allows you to basically 'save' how much xp you have (minus the 500 xp cost for using the Thought Bottle like this) and then 'reload' to that amount at a later date. If done multiple times that 500 xp can add up so the number of times this is used to 'save' your xp should be minimized. One way to minimize the xp lost is to use two different thought bottles so you only lose 500 xp even after using the first thought bottle many times.

Step 1: Get level drained. This sets your XP exactly halfway between your current (pre-drained) level and your last level.

(click to show/hide)

Level LossA character who loses a level instantly loses one Hit Die. The character’s base attack bonus, base saving throw bonuses, and special class abilities are now reduced to the new, lower level. Likewise, the character loses any ability score gain, skill ranks, and any feat associated with the level (if applicable). If the exact ability score or skill ranks increased from a level now lost is unknown (or the player has forgotten), lose 1 point from the highest ability score or ranks from the highest-ranked skills. If a familiar or companion creature has abilities tied to a character who has lost a level, the creature’s abilities are adjusted to fit the character’s new level.

The victim’s experience point total is immediately set to the midpoint of the previous level.

Step 2: Burn all of your available XP making stuff.Step 3: Get a restoration cast on you, removing the negative level and resetting your XP to the minimum for your original level.

Repeat as necessary. This does cost you 100gp per casting, but that's a pittance compared to what you'll be saving by making all of your own gear.

Alternatively to these options, automatically-resetting Magical Traps or Spell Turrets can enable several joy inducing spells, like Good Hope or Elation to be cast repeatedly, thereby enabling the other Ambrosia traps to continuously produce their extract. Further, people would want to go into these devices, especially if you stack several pleasure-inducing spells into them.

A dedicated wright and a quill of scribing makes the time for creating items mostly useless - unless you need them to work faster. Just take an hour to set up the wright and a standard action for the quill and they will craft for you. A dedicated wright is available to do your crafting by 3rd level, using WBL [2.1k, 160xp, craft (pottery) DC14]. Other information is that the wright knows what you know and is telepathically linked within 1500'.

Silver Marshes (Page 62) has a wizard college you can get into for 1,000gp. You may craft items without crafting feats if you pay the school 10% of the items market price. Paying 60% instead of 50% when crafting, is a fair trade off if you have no feats to spare. Its cheaper to do this many times with Extraordinary Artisan than to take only Craft Wonderous Item.

Midguard dwarves (Frostburn 124) are outsiders with Craft ring, wonderous item, and arms and armor as bonus EX feats. They also have the EX ability that they count as having all the pre-req's to craft any of these items, meaning you don't have to waste the spells. This allows you to craft without outside spell help while not a caster or warlock.

If you need to rapidly change item creation feats, there is an online vestige for this. This is suboptimal to every class except binders.

Please note that an artificer cannot use caster level boosting items "for (the) purposes of meeting item prerequisites" since for that purpose an artificer doesn't have a caster level, they only have an "effective caster level." They can, however, use caster level boosting items to enhance their ability to use infusions.

There's a section in Book of Vile Darkness (pages 26-28) for ritual sacrifice which allows you to make a Knowledge (Religion) check once per day to gain a reward, two of which (among other things) are Dark Craft experience points and Dark Craft gold, which you can use for item creation costs. Dependant on your Knowledge (Religion) check.

I'm currently making an evil wizard to abuse this prospect. The peasants fuel my magical items!

Note FC1 has a creature, which can be summoned with Greater Planar Binding, that explicitly gives out 3 free Fiendish Grafts per day instantly... and is evidently quite happy to do so. Might be worth mentioning. Suddenly otherwise useless (due to cost) grafts like the Charming Eye and Fearsome Eye become very worthwhile indeed.

The most broken, at least for non psionics, is clearly Morphing. That enchantment lets you switch the Shuriken into any other similar weapon (here meaning a light weapon of the appropriate size). Basically, it turns into a +1 enchantment that reduces all enchanting and materials cost for a weapon to 1/50th normal. A pair of Feycraft Life Drinker Lifestealing Keen Aptitude +5 Morphing Abyssal Bloodiron Kukris for around 8kgp? Sure, go nuts. And people thought TWF had problems with weapon cost. Or just make a bunch of +5 Morphing Keen Returning Shuriken of Distance, turn them into daggers, and don't worry about wealth at all as a Master Thrower.

JaronK

Referring to the Rod of Excellent Magic.

Quote from: The_Mad_Linguist

Quote

If casting the spell would reduce the caster’s XP total, she pays the cost upon beginning the scroll in addition to the XP cost for making the scroll itself.

Since you have the rod, casting the spell would not reduce your XP total.

"Master Scribe(ex): When you use Scribe Scroll, reduce the gp and XP costs by 5% for each level in this class. These bonuses stack with those of Legendary Artisan and Extraordinary Artisan, so that a 5th level Unbound Scroll with the Legendary Artisan feat reduces the XP cost of scroll creation by 50%."

in explorer's handbook, there is a handy prestige class called a "cataclysm mage". about p58, iirc.... notable that one of the class features allows you to add a small list of weapon and armor enhancements for zero xp cost, whenever you happen to be crafting arms or armor. still have to pay the materials cost, however. nonetheless, no xp cost is quite nice.

Grab a non-binding Faustian pact to give you 235.794769% of your current wealth (use nine of the +10% option and gain them one at a time).

From a discussion about whether cost reducers reduce the cost of expensive material components:

Templates (DMGII): explicitly do not reduce component costs.Portal Master: 50% "normal cost" but does not stack with magical artisan.The Caster Shield is only for raw materials and is another instance where that term is differentiated from material components.Blood Artisan: 75% "normal cost" for Magic Arms and Armor as well as Wondrous Items, but all items you create have a randomly determined curse.

Fey Cherry wood's phrasing was somewhat ambiguous:

Quote from: Dragon Magazine 357

... items made from fey cherry wood cost 10% less gp and XP to enhance magically.

(Also Bastian, you have the Dragon Mag number as 257 in your guide.)

Unbound Scroll has almost identical phrasing, followed by mentioning that this discount stacks with that of Extraordinary Artisan which does not discount material component costs.

Tangentially related would be that different item types require different amounts of material components for crafting. Wands and Staves of course require 50 times the amount it would cost to cast the pertinent spell once. Weapons, Rods, and Wondrous Items do not require material components at all for their crafting processes. Potions will only require enough for one casting. Armor and scrolls have me a bit hung up though: either they only need enough of the appropriate component for one casting, or they need enough components to cast the spell each day of crafting and I'm not sure which it is.

EDIT: Oh, and I get that it's there for thoroughness, but is it even possible to get Divine Rank as a PC? It has a similar "the cost" wording to fey cherry wood and unbound scroll but I somehow don't think it much matters...

Among the most famous game in the place are the white stags. These elusive creatures (treat as celestial chargers; see page 250 of the Monster Manual) live for the thrill of the chase and consider the hunt part of their life cycle. Even the most devoted defender of good can hunt a white stag, for the stag knows the consequences and is willing to be prey. But white stags don’t give themselves up. They take great glee in using their wiles and unparalleled knowledge of the forest to confound hunters from other planes. No creatures native to the Beastlands will attack a white stag. Instead, they turn on the hunters with unbridled ferocity.

The antlers of a white stag stretch wide enough that it’s possible to fashion a composite longbow out of them using the Craft (bow-making) skill (making checks against DC 30). Such a bow is considered of masterwork quality, and magical enhancements placed on the bow cost 10% less because the antlers have an affinity for magic.

Hey bastion. I haven't been haunting this thread in far too long. From my notes using this a few days ago:

its Bind Elemental (not elemental binding) ECS54Apprentice (Craftsman) feat is DMGII177Magical Artisan is PFtF41Extraordinary Artisan is ECS53Hammer of the magesmith is AEG109 45,912gpcollege affiliation is 172 generally bad (12 while vulnerable for a month and 5% chance EL12 attack a month)dark one affiliation is 176 (doable from level 1 with enough missions)

Hey bastion. I haven't been haunting this thread in far too long. From my notes using this a few days ago:

its Bind Elemental (not elemental binding) ECS54Apprentice (Craftsman) feat is DMGII177Magical Artisan is PFtF41Extraordinary Artisan is ECS53Hammer of the magesmith is AEG109

Added info. Thanks.

Quote

Hammer of the magesmith is AEG109 45,912gpcollege affiliation is 172 generally bad (12 while vulnerable for a month and 5% chance EL12 attack a month)dark one affiliation is 176 (doable from level 1 with enough missions)

So do you think I should put those two affiliations in red?

Also since the price of the hammer is a one time thing I'm not sure I should add it. Thoughts?

Edit: Added some of the small things from the To Be Added section. I will be adding some of the harder to add things later.

Attention Handbook Writers! If you wish to openly discuss your handbook in an easily-accessible location, please start a thread in this section (Do not do so in the Handbooks section), and then reply to this thread. Doing so is not required, but handbooks exist for the purpose of compiling useful information regarding the 3.X system. Such handbooks would do well to have a discussion thread.

I've just made a few minor changes to the handbook in response to comments in the discussion thread. I'm also integrating some things into the handbook that should have been integrated a while ago. I just wanted to assure people this handbook is not abandoned, I've just been busy working on the Pun-pun handbook and doing non-DnD related things for the last few months.